Towards Zero

No road death, no road injury – a future where every journey is a safe one.

Safety is a shared responsibility

In line with the 2013-2022 Victorian Road Safety Strategy, the ultimate aim of the TAC and its road safety partners is to achieve the vision of no road deaths and serious injuries - a future where every journey is a safe one.

The rationale for this is simple and is based on the belief that human health is paramount to all else - everyone has the right to use our roads and streets without threat to life or health.

We no longer accept that it's inevitable that people die or be seriously injured just because we have a road transport system, because we do not believe it is ethically acceptable that people are killed or seriously injured when using our transport system. Life and health should never be exchanged for other benefits in our society such as getting from A to B quicker. When someone is killed or seriously injured, we must do everything we can to prevent a similar event from occurring.

To achieve this, the Victorian road safety partners (VicRoads, Victoria Police, the Department of Justice and the Transport Accident Commission) have adopted a Safe System philosophy to road safety. This is a holistic method that aims to minimise the risk of death or serious injury on the roads by taking into account the interaction between roads, vehicles, speeds and road users.

The key principles underpinning and driving a safe system approach are that:

People make mistakes

People have a limited tolerance to injuries

Safety is a shared responsibility

One of the challenges of truly adopting safe system thinking within road safety is informing and engaging the community regarding the concept. 'Safety is a shared responsibility' is one of the key principles of the system so the community needs to be engaged for this to be possible – and worth noting, this will represent a significant shift for the Victorian community in road safety communications.

Roads play a vital part in helping reduce crashes and minimise the severity
of injuries if there is an accident. To reduce the impact of road accidents, we have committed $100 million per
year or $1 billion over the life of the the Safer Road Infrastructure Program
(SRIP).

Vehicle safety is constantly advancing and we promote appropriate technologies that will help reduce road trauma. Advances in car safety technologies have significantly contributed to a decline in deaths and injuries on our roads.

Everybody has a key role to play in preventing death and serious injury on the road. As road users we all need to comply with road rules, be safety conscious and alert in order to create a safe road culture.

Speed is one of the major factors contributing to accidents on Victoria's roads. As speed increases, so does the risk of crashing and being seriously injured or killed. Reducing speed can result in a significant reduction in road trauma.